Bet365 Craven Stakes (Group 3)
AN Amo Racing clean sweep of the main Newmarket classic trials was completed on Thursday courtesy of Indestructible (Karl Burke/Kevin Stott), who scored in the Group 3 Craven Stakes at an SP of 8/1.
The Kodiac colt was bought for €150,000 at the breeze-up sales and was trained last year by Michael O’Callaghan.
He was second to leading 2000 Guineas hope Chaldean in both the Acomb at York and the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, and he gave a boost to those formlines when beating Chaldean’s stablemate The Foxes (Andrew Balding/Oisin Murphy) by a length and a quarter on his debut for Burke.
Third went to Dancing Magic (Roger Teal/Kieran Shoemark), three lengths behind the winner after attempting to make all, but favourite Mysterious Night was a major flop, finishing last of the seven starters.
Since moving to Karl Burke, Indestructible has had his palate cauterized to help his breathing, and that may well have helped his finishing effort, as he battled well to get the better of The Foxes after the latter had appeared to be going best.
The winner was cut to 14/1 for the Guineas, while the placed horses have both been confirmed as on target for the Dante Stakes at York.
Burke said: “That was brilliant. The horses have hit form at just the right time. If you were talking to me two weeks ago, I would have been tearing what is left of my hair out, but things have clicked into gear.
“He is a lovely, scopey horse. He had a couple of little niggles when he arrived but nothing major. He has worked well, but because of those little niggles - and I’m sure Kevin will say the same - he has had a good blow today and he will come on. We’ll digest this and see how he comes out of it, but I would be very surprised if he doesn’t come back here in two weeks.”
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